“Why couldn’t he wait until Sunday night?” Emma mother says.
“We don’t ever know what’s in a person’s heart,” Emma’s father says. “God obviously led David to do this and we see the intentions. He’s dead. The snakes are gone. The marriage is gone. We’re just going to have to pray for another opportunity for Emma. That’s all.”
Emma thinks of Michael, understanding, though, that’s not what her father has in mind.
She flings her ring on the table, and it jingles before coming to a stop.
“Can you get that back to David’s father?” Emma asks.
“I’ll have it if he comes looking for it,” her father says. “But he’s riled up, the sheriff says. Might be a while.”
“Well,” Emma says. “It’s out of my hands. I don’t want any part of David left with me.”
“What a shame,” Emma’s father says. “Didn’t see this coming. Lord works in mysterious ways. Yes, sir. Lord works in mysterious ways.
“Well, it’s Christmas morning," her father continues. "Remember Luke 2. ‘An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.’
“We have some gifts to open. So let’s get on with it.”
“Yes,” Emma says, agreeing with her father for the first time since she can’t recall. “Gifts.”
17.
A New Year Arrives
Our perceptions of reality rarely tell the truth. And so it is with Emma when a winter of redundancy has given way to a hopeful spring. She thinks her thirst may have subsided and that Michael might make a return to the Denton farm once the semester is out. Perhaps they can start anew, she thinks.
Emma understands that hope is not a strategy, yet, as tender leaves break from buds and winter’s cold, short days give way to warmth and longer days, she is looking forward again with hope.
It’s the first time, she recalls, since she first looked forward to meeting Michael at the barn that hope has burned so brightly. Perhaps, she imagines, she will just look up one day and Michael will be back working again on the farm, driving the tractor, pitching the hay, while she watches with a fluttering heart.
But it is not Michael Emma is surprised to see on the Denton farm on this day but Deputy Billy Cagle.
He is walking the grounds by the barn, looking for nothing in particular. He glances at the well. He looks across the field. He walks into the barn.
Emma is planting lettuce from seed in the garden in the back of the parsonage grounds across from the barn when she notices the deputy prowling around. She is now only dabbling her hands on the soil, with knees entrenched in the dirt and her head titled up, watching each move by Billy Cagle.
There’s nothing for him to find in there, she thinks. But what is he doing? Why is he there?
The deputy stays in the barn longer than Emma is comfortable with. She’s lost track of the time, but knows it is taking longer than it should. She can’t imagine what he could find in there, but the very fact that he is there is troubling. No reason the deputy should be prowling the Denton farm and standing in the barn. No reason at all.
Deputy Cagle emerges, finally, walking from the barn door side facing the parson with eyes on Emma. He keeps walking, toward her, taking the same path over the fence and across the road that Michael once took.
Emma stops working in the dirt and stands up, the afternoon’s drifting sun shining from her golden hair.
“Afternoon, deputy,” Emma says.
“Afternoon, ma’am.”
“What can I do for you?”
“Oh, nothing I suppose. I was just over here looking around,” the deputy says. “Was just out riding around this afternoon and had a hunch. Something told me to come over here and look around. So I pulled up, and here I am, looking around.”
“I see.”
“You know anything about this farm?” Deputy Cagle asks.
“No. I just know they call it the Denton farm,” Emma says. “Nobody ever much over there.”
“I see. You over go over there?”
“Me? No,” Emma says. “Got plenty to tend to over here. Nothing over there but a dilapidated old farm anyhow.”
“Yeah. Well, I saw you over here and just wanted to say hello under better circumstances. Last times I have seen you haven’t been pleasant. Once when Josh disappeared, then that Christmas morning when you fiancé was bitten by that snake and died.”